Title: AU: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Author: Artemis Luna Diana

E-Mail: artemislunadiana@yahoo.com

Rating: PG-13 (cursing)

Pairing: none

Time: begins the night of James and Lily's deaths and continues through Harry's first year of school

Summary: Harry grows up under the watchful eyes of Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and Arabella Figg.  When Harry was still little, he had a nightmare and woke up screaming.  When his guardians arrived in his bedroom, he told them that he would be coming back.  Knowing instinctively who Harry was referring too, the three resolved to train Harry to defend himself before he left for Hogwarts.  They figured that everyone would dismiss Harry's vision as a simple nightmare.  So they kept the whole matter a secret.  Now it's time for Harry's first year of Hogwarts.  He's been trained in secret to be cunning, strong, and quick-thinking.  So where does he end up: Slytherin.

Disclaimer: I own not a thing.  Due to the fact that this story covers one of the years already written, the majority of the events and some of the dialogue comes straight from the book.  This chapter also contains the description of the troll, which is also taken straight from the book.

Thanks to: snapeysnapesnape for the excellent beta

Chapter Seven: A friend in need, is a friend indeed.

Harry was quite content and sure of his place by the time Halloween rolled around.  He was, without a doubt, one of Snape's favorites and he was extremely pleased by that, even if it made the Gryffindors hate him more.  The first Quidditch match of the year was coming up; everything was going great.

Harry and Blaise were on their way down to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast when they bumped into Tracey Davis, Olivia Moon, and Millicent Bulstrode on the first floor.  "What's going on?" Blaise asked.

"We just left the girls' bathroom, that Gryffindor girl Granger was in there crying," Millicent replied.

"From what I understand, the Gryffindorks are treating her horrible because she's smart," Tracey explained.

"She showed them all up in Charms class and they insulted her for it," Olivia added.

"Gryffindors," Millicent snorted.  "They are suppose to be so good, in reality they're horrible people."

"Not all of them," Harry said quietly.  "Granger is a bit of a know-it-all, but she doesn't know any better.  Besides I think it's her way of trying to fit in.  She's a Muggle-born and feels uncomfortable."

"Probably," Tracey replied.  "I hope things improve for her soon, otherwise no matter how clever she is, she's going to hate Hogwarts and her magic."

"Another Muggle-born lost back to the Muggle-world," Millicent agreed.

The small group made their way to the Great Hall in thoughtful silence.  As Slytherins, Granger wasn't likely to accept their help, and they couldn't ask a Hufflepuff or a Ravenclaw to help her because Slytherins weren't trusted by any house.  Harry sighed and mentally wished the Gryffindor girl luck; she was going to need it.

The food had just appeared when Professor Quirrell came running into the hall.  Harry frowned, 'why hadn't he been in the hall to begin with?' 

Everyone stared as he made his way further into the hall.  "Troll – in the dungeons – thought you ought to know."  He fell to the floor in a dead faint.

As his schoolmates, including Blaise, broke out in screams and other modes of panic, Harry's frown increased.  'Why had Quirrell been in the dungeons instead of at the feast?  His classroom, office, and quarters were on the sixth floor.  He would have had to go down past the Great Hall to get to the dungeons to discover the troll.'  His frown faded.  'Maybe it had something to do with the trapdoor!'  The frown reappeared.  'But the trapdoor was on the third floor…'

It took Dumbledore a moment to calm the students down enough to listen to him.  "Prefects, lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!"

Marcus hurried towards the gathered group of first year Slytherins.  "Follow me and keep calm.  We don't know where in the dungeons the troll is.  Take out your wands and if you spot the troll, inform me immediately.  Let's go." Justin Montague, the 6th year Slytherin chaser joined their group to help defend them if they ran into the troll.  Marcus sent him a grateful look and the group started down towards the dungeons.

In the mess of students outside of the Great Hall, Harry grabbed Blaise's arm.  "Blaise.  Granger's in the girls' bathroom.  She doesn't know about the troll."

"Harry!  This is something a Gryffindor would do!" he whined.

"If we don't do it, who will?  Besides, it could benefit us in the long run."

"Fine, but let's go now!"

The two boys separated from the mess of students and made their way to the girls' bathroom on the first floor.  They had just slipped down a deserted corridor when they heard quick footsteps behind them.

"Marcus!" hissed Blaise, pulling Harry behind a large stone griffin.

However, when they peered around it, they didn't see Marcus Flint, but Professor Snape.  He crossed the corridor and disappeared from view.

"What's he doing?" Blaise whispered.  "Why isn't he with the rest of the teachers in the dungeons?"

Harry frowned.  "Maybe it has something to do with Quirrell."

"What do you mean?"

"I'll explain later.  Let's go."

Quietly as possible they crept along the next corridor after Snape's fading footsteps.  Blaise grabbed Harry's arm, stopping him.  "That stairwell bypasses the second floor and goes straight to the third.  Snape is going to the third floor!"

"This makes things even more confusing," Harry replied.

They started to move forward again when Blaise stopped them again.  Harry glared at him.  "What now?"

"Do you smell something?"

Harry sniffed the air delicately.  "Merlin, yes!  That's foul!" he hissed, covering his nose with this sleeve.

And then they heard it – a low grunting, and the shuffling of footfalls of gigantic feet.  Blaise pointed – at the end of the passage to the left, something huge was moving toward them.  They shrank into the shadows and watched as it emerged into a patch of moonlight.

It was a horrible sight.  Twelve feet tall, its skin dull, granite gray, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut.  It has short legs thick as tree trunks, with flat horny feet.  The smell coming from it was incredible.  It was holding a wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its arms were so long.

The troll stopped next to a doorway and peered inside.  It waggled its long ears, making up its tiny mind then slouched slowly into the room.

"The key is in the lock," Harry muttered.  "We could lock it in."

"Okay," Blaise nodded nervously.

They crept silently towards the open door, mouths dry, hoping against hope that the troll wasn't about to come out.  In one quick move, Harry managed to grab the key, slam the door, and lock it.

"Yes!" they crowed.

"Now to find the girls' bathroom," Harry said and glanced around.

"Uh, Harry…"

"What?  Did you find it?"

"Harry, I think that was the girls' bathroom…"

"What?!"

A high-pitched, terrified scream came from the locked room.  "Oh, no!" Harry yelped.  He rushed to the door and turned the key, fumbling slightly in his panic, Blaise right behind him.  Harry pulled open the door and they ran inside.

Hermione Granger was cowering against the far wall as the troll advanced towards her, smashing sinks and stalls as it went.  "Stun it on two!" Harry cried.  "One, two, stupefy!"

The troll fell forward under the combined assault of the two stunning spells.  The three stared at it in silence.  "Is it dead?" came the shaky voice of Hermione Granger.

"It's just stunned," Harry replied in a shocked whisper.  "I didn't think it would work…"

"Merlin," Blaise breathed.

Harry tried to slow his rapidly beating heart and focused on Granger.  "Are you okay?  Are you hurt?"  She shook her head no.  Harry skirted around the fallen troll and grabbed her hand.  "Come on, we don't want to be here when it wakes up."

They made their way back to Blaise and looked at the fallen troll again.  Granger tightened her grip on Harry's hand.  "Oh, my God," she whispered.  "Oh, my God."

"We should get her out of here," Blaise said.  "I think she's going to hyperventilate."

A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made the three of them look behind them towards the door.  They hadn't realized that the noise of the troll smashing up the bathroom and then collapsing to the floor with a loud crash would have been heard through the floor.  A moment later, Professor McGonagall came bursting into the room, closely followed by Snape, with Quirrell bringing up the rear.  Quirrell took one look at the troll, let out a faint whimper, and sat quickly down on a toilet, clutching his heart.

"Merlin," Harry heard Blaise moan.  "They're going to kill us for this."

Snape bent over the troll making sure it was going to remain unconscious.  Professor McGonagall was glaring at the three of them.  Harry was suddenly reminded of their first flying lesson.  His heart sank.  Blaise was right.  They were so dead.

"What on earth were you thinking of?" she demanded.  "You're lucky you weren't killed!  Why were you out of your dormitories?"

Snape left his examination of the troll to join McGonagall in discovering why they were not where they were supposed to be.  He gave Harry a swift, piercing look.  Harry stiffened, but remained silent.  He felt Hermione's grip on his hand tighten again.  His chin lifted.

"We were looking for Ms. Granger," he said firmly.  "Millicent, Tracey, and Olivia told us she was in here.  She didn't know about the troll, and it wasn't like any Gryffindor would have come after her."

McGonagall was taken aback.  Snape glared at Granger.  "Why were you in here?" he demanded.  "Do you realize that you put yourself and two of your classmates at risk?"

"Excuse me, sir," Blaise interrupted.  "But that is Granger's business."  He then paled, realizing what he said, and who he said it to.

Now Snape was taken aback.  His Slytherins talking back to him in defense of a Gryffindor?  He and McGonagall exchanged a look and were silent a moment.  "Twenty points from Gryffindor," Professor McGonagall said finally.  "For your appalling lack of judgment.  Return to your dormitory; students are finishing the feast in their houses."

Hermione glanced at her two rescuers and gave them a small smile.  She released Harry's hand and left the room.  McGonagall glared at them and then followed Hermione out of the room. 

Snape glanced at the troll.  "Two stunning spells?"

"Yes, sir," Harry replied.

"Twenty points to Slytherin apiece.  Return to your dormitories."

Blaise let out a sigh of relief, and the two started out of the room.  "Five points from Slytherin, Mr. Zabini, for your cheek."

They hurried from the room before Snape decided to take any more points for their behavior.  "I can't believe he only took five!" Blaise said as soon as they were out of ear shot.

"Me neither.  I can't believe you said that to him!"

"Neither can I!"

"Hey," Harry said, stopping his friend.  "We just took out a mountain troll."

Blaise laughed.  "Oh, yea!  Slytherins rule!"

Harry laughed and they ran the rest of the way back to their dorm.

***

The next day while Harry and Blaise were working on their Magic Theory homework in the library, Hermione came over to their table.  She held out her hand to them.  "Thanks for saving me."

Harry accepted her hand immediately.  "It was no problem."

Blaise shook her hand.  "Same here."

"Would you like to join us?" Harry asked.  "We're working on our theory homework."

Hermione gave them a sunny smile.  "Okay, let me go get my stuff." 

And so began one of the oddest friendships Hogwarts had seen in recent years.

***

TBC…

A/N: I decided to stop here and leave the conspiracies and quidditch for the next chapter, so this chapter is a bit shorter than the previous.  I don't really go by length with this story, but instead by events, so chapters can end up being really long, or kind of short like this one.

I have had many, many, MANY e-mails about romance in this story.  From please include slash, to Harry/Hermione forever, to 'if you include slash you will die'.  I ask you all to remember that this story has no pairing.  There will not be any romance at all.  Perhaps in the sequels that are stewing in my brain, I'll include some romance, but not in this one.

As always, thanks for your reviews and e-mails, they are much appreciated.

I've put up the first year schedules of all the major characters at my yahoo!group.  remember that you must be a member of the group to view the schedules though. And you must be signed into yahoo! to access the group.

My yahoo!group --- group.yahoo.com/groups/HuntressSmiles

My livejournal --- www.livejournal.com/users/missdiana

~Artemis Luna Diana~